U.S. Team Tours Dhahran Base to Study Security

A U.S. team inspected a military housing complex Friday where 19 American airmen died in a bombing last month, hoping to find ways to prevent future terrorist attacks.

The 40-member team led by retired Army Gen. Wayne Downing will also seek Saudi cooperation to improve security around U.S. military bases.

The FBI is looking for clues to determine who carried out the June 25 bombing. Wide suspicion has fallen on Muslim militants opposed to the presence of Western forces in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest cities.

An FBI team has been in Saudi Arabia since shortly after the blast at Khobar Towers, a military housing complex in Dhahran where about 3,700 of the 6,000 U.S. service personnel in the kingdom are based.

Downing declined to speak with reporters after inspecting the site.

A U.S. Air Force spokesman, Tech. Sgt. Scott Clough, said the team would “inspect U.S. military sites and see if additional changes are required.”

Downing, who will submit his findings by Aug. 15, has said he would like to interview witnesses to the Dhahran bombing, including Saudi guards on duty that night.

Whether Saudis will grant such access is uncertain. They turned down a request to interview four suspects in a bombing in Riyadh last year who were later executed.

U.S. Defense Secretary William J. Perry has said he expects Downing to look into why security changes reportedly suggested by U.S. officials in Dhahran were never implemented.